Haiti Unrest Halts Labadee Cruise Calls Into 2026

The Labadee Haiti cruise suspension now stretches into at least April 2026, leaving Royal Caribbean Group ships to bypass northern Haiti as gang violence and Level 4 travel warnings persist. Cruisers booked on Caribbean itineraries that once highlighted Labadee, the company's long running private peninsula near Cap Haitien, are seeing the stop deleted or swapped for other ports well into next year. For anyone holding older brochures or early 2026 reservations, the practical move is to assume Labadee is off the map, then verify the updated route, port times, and refund options before sailing.

In plain terms, the Labadee Haiti cruise suspension means Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises are not planning regular calls at the resort through at least April or May 2026, and most mainstream Caribbean cruisers will have no way to reach Haiti by ship in the next two winter seasons.

How Long Labadee Is Off Cruise Maps

Royal Caribbean first paused visits to Labadee in March 2024 after Haiti declared a state of emergency, then briefly resumed calls later that year when conditions seemed to stabilize. Security deteriorated again in early 2025 as gang violence spread, and by April the line had once more dropped the port "out of an abundance of caution," rerouting ships to other Caribbean stops.

Throughout spring and summer 2025, the company extended the suspension in stages, first through the summer, then through October. In early September 2025, trade outlets and travel agent communications confirmed a further extension, with Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises indicating that Labadee would not reappear on schedules until at least May 2026. Public statements to consumer media have typically cited a pause "through April 2026," which leaves a narrow window where sailings might resume in late spring if conditions improve.

At the same time, the resort itself is effectively dormant. Reporting from northern Haiti describes the once busy private peninsula as deserted, with cruise calls that used to arrive several times per week now absent and the pier empty. While "through April 2026" is the formal horizon, nothing in the security picture suggests that Labadee will return to normal operations quickly afterward.

Which Ships And Routes Lost Labadee

The suspension affects a broad swath of Royal Caribbean and Celebrity itineraries, especially those built around seven night eastern, western, and southern Caribbean loops from Florida and East Coast homeports. Earlier in 2025, nearly a dozen ships from Port Canaveral, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami saw Labadee removed or replaced as the company re worked routes for safety. By September, travel agent bulletins and news coverage pointed to at least 35 to 41 sailings that had lost a Labadee call through spring 2026, a number that will grow as additional seasons are loaded.

Celebrity Cruises has followed the same pattern. It quietly pulled Labadee from select 2024 sailings, then in 2025 revised multiple 2025 and 2026 voyages, dropping Haiti in favor of ports such as Nassau in the Bahamas, Grand Turk, and Perfect Day at CocoCay. Across Royal Caribbean Group, replacement ports now commonly include Nassau, Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, George Town in Grand Cayman, and extra sea days, with some itineraries also adding or lengthening stops at existing destinations instead of Haiti.

For booked guests, that means a Labadee call listed on an older invoice is almost certainly obsolete. Even if the booking system still shows Haiti in summary, the detailed itinerary, mobile app, or cruise documents usually reflect the new port list and times. Travelers who have already lined up independent tours based on the old schedule need to confirm exactly when and where the ship now calls before they lock in nonrefundable plans.

Why Haiti Is At Level 4

In the background, Haiti's overall security situation has worsened sharply. The United States Department of State reissued its Haiti travel advisory on July 15 2025, assigning the country a Level 4 Do Not Travel rating and adding an explicit terrorism indicator. The advisory warns of kidnapping, violent crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited access to health care, and notes that armed gangs have expanded their control over neighborhoods, roads, and supply routes.

Local and regional briefings paint a similar picture. The country has cycled through states of emergency since 2024 as authorities struggle to contain gang violence in and around Port au Prince, although northern regions such as Cap Haitien have often remained calmer. For cruise operators, however, the key factors are the elevated risk of kidnapping and roadblocks, the strain on law enforcement, and the potential difficulty evacuating guests or crew in a crisis, even when the resort itself appears secure.

Given that context, it is not surprising that Royal Caribbean Group and other cruise stakeholders are erring on the side of caution. A Level 4 advisory is the highest issued by the United States, and while it is not legally binding on private travelers, it weighs heavily in corporate risk calculations, insurance decisions, and port selection for mass market sailings.

Impact On Northern Haiti's Tourism Economy

Labadee has been a pillar of northern Haiti's tourism economy for decades. World Bank reporting in the mid 2010s noted that Haiti was then welcoming more than one million visitors per year, with over 600,000 arriving as cruise passengers to Labadee's beaches, and that the destination generated a significant share of the country's tourism revenue. More recent accounts suggest the private enclave and its pier normally welcome between 750,000 and one million cruise passengers annually, providing several hundred direct jobs plus a wider circle of income for vendors, boat operators, and service workers.

With ships now absent, that income has largely evaporated. Residents quoted in northern Haiti describe water taxis that once shuttled tourists as now carrying mostly locals, at far lower fares, and small businesses that depended on cruise crowds facing steep drops in revenue. Cap Haitien's hotels and guesthouses have seen some offsetting demand, especially from Haitian diaspora travelers using the city's small international airport while Port au Prince's main gateway remains constrained, but overall international leisure arrivals are well below their potential.

On the ground, that means fewer formal jobs at Labadee, thinner sales in local markets, and less tax revenue flowing to a government that also faces intense security and social spending needs. For travelers, the key takeaway is not simply that a beach stop is gone, but that their vacation choices can have real economic consequences for communities that once depended on cruise traffic. Until the security picture changes, however, there is little room for individual cruisers to safely "vote with their feet" by insisting on a Haiti call.

How This Reshapes Caribbean Cruise Planning

For the 2025 2026 seasons, Caribbean cruise planning should treat Haiti as effectively unavailable in the mainstream market. Royal Caribbean Group is steering ships toward Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Cayman ports instead, while promoting other private destinations and marquee stops that carry lower security risk. Other big cruise brands had already dropped Haiti years earlier, so the Labadee suspension mainly removes one of the last regular windows for large numbers of North American travelers to step ashore there.

Practically, that means you should look closely at the port mix, sea day balance, and replacement stops on any itinerary that once featured Labadee. A route that loses Haiti and gains an extra sea day might appeal to some travelers, while others would prefer swaps that add a port like Puerto Plata or Grand Cayman, where excursions and independent touring options are plentiful. Shore excursion menus, port arrival and departure times, and even onboard theme nights can change as a result of these itinerary edits, so do not assume that early marketing copy still reflects what will actually happen onboard.

Travelers who were especially interested in Haiti's culture or UNESCO listed heritage, such as the Citadelle and Sans Souci sites near Cap Haitien, should recognize that cruise based access is not realistic under current conditions. Overland trips that ignore Level 4 warnings are not advisable, both for personal safety and for insurance coverage reasons. Instead, those travelers might focus on learning more about Haiti's history from afar, or consider future visits once security has stabilized and reputable operators resume service.

For deeper context on how to interpret security advisories and adjust ship choice, Adept Traveler readers can also review the site's Haiti advisory explainer and its Caribbean cruise safety and port change guide, which go into more detail on how operators weigh risk, and how travelers can build more resilient itineraries around those decisions.

What Travelers Should Do Now

If you already hold a Royal Caribbean or Celebrity booking that lists Labadee in 2025 or the first half of 2026, treating the Haiti stop as cancelled is the safest assumption. Log into your cruise account or speak with a travel advisor to pull the latest itinerary, then check for changes in homeport times, port order, and the length of stays at replacement destinations.

Next, match those updated times against any flights, pre or post cruise hotel bookings, or independent port tours you have arranged. Even small shifts in port timing can affect whether you can comfortably make a morning flight home, or whether a private excursion operator will still be able to meet you on the pier. Where needed, adjust reservations now, while there is still space and before change fees climb.

Finally, take the underlying Haiti security situation seriously. Level 4 advisories are reserved for the highest risk environments, and the issues described in Haiti's advisory, including kidnapping, gang violence, and limited emergency care, are not problems an individual traveler can solve with extra caution alone. Respect those warnings, avoid attempts to reach Haiti independently around a cruise, and build your Caribbean plans around the many other islands and coasts that remain accessible and comparatively stable while the country works through an extended crisis.

Sources

• Royal Caribbean Extends Suspension of Labadee Port Calls
• Royal Caribbean Will Be Skipping This Popular Port of Call Through Spring 2026
• Royal Caribbean Cancels More Visits to Its Caribbean Port Amid Violence
• Cruise Port Labadee Haiti, Suspension Of Calls Through 2026
• Celebrity Cruises Joins Royal Caribbean in Canceling All Stops to Labadee
• Haiti Travel Advisory, Level 4 Do Not Travel
• Northern Haiti Is The Country's Showcase For Tourists, But Gang Violence Is Crippling Activity
• Haiti Boosts Tourism In The North And Connects Artisans To Markets